Evil Twins In The Metaverse: A Safe Haven For Identity Theft And Fraud?

In the metaverse, users have digital avatars which they can customise and use as a virtual proxy to interact with the metaverse environment and other users. It is useful to think of this digital avatar as a virtual extension of the user. Just as one can suffer identity theft in the real world, the question becomes, "What would happen if someone created a digital copy of you as an avatar in the metaverse and engaged in defamatory, fraudulent or other objectionable behaviour?"

In this article, the term 'evil twin' is used to describe three unique situations in the metaverse where:

• a digital avatar is created to mimic a person's likeness;
• metaverse buildings, digital wearables, and the like are created to mimic a company's brand; or